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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66098	Covenant-keeping the way to blessedness, or, A brief discourse wherein is shewn the connexion which there is between the promise, on God's part; and duty, on our part, in the covenant of grace as it was delivered in several sermons, preached in order to solemn renewing of covenant. By Samuel Willard teacher of a church in Boston in New-England.	Willard, Samuel, 1640-1707.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1682 (1682)	Wing W2272; ESTC W37635	100,188	164

Men is our Rule any further then the Scripture is theirs 1 Cor. 11. 1. But here have been good foundations laid and there seems to be a threatning as if those who are now grown and growing up should meet temptation to subvert and overwhelm them Beware how you lend an hand to such a work you shall find it a dangerous design If any thing be wanting God shall in due time reveal it to them that wait patiently But if you put your hands into the Wall to pluck down the Wayes of Christ a Serpent will bite them If you destroy what your Fathers have built expect that God will destroy you at least make you feel the smart and bitterness of it If Jericho could not be built without a Curse then certainly Jerusalem cannot be undermined without a Curse I shall resume the general Exhortation and so close this discourse Let us then all be really and industriously careful in this business God hath taken us near Him and we have drawn near to Him at least in a visible and outward profession We have owned we have many a time renewed our Covenant with Him and lately with great solemnity What remains for us to do but to study faithfulness to God and to our own souls in it We have a Covenant our work is to make sure of the Mercies of it They are ours upon Conditions I speak to a visible Church we may possess them we may forfeit and lose them if we lose them we lose our Souls and shall be the most unhappy People in the World The utter loss of Covenant-Mercies is an irreparable loss We may lose them Grace and Glory are not so tyed to the visible Covenant but they may be separated God proves us now with His Covenant He waits to see what we will do how we will manage this Interest It will be a great account that such a People will have to give in in the great Day when every Talent shall be reckoned for Well might the Psalmist advise Serve the Lord with fear rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. 11. And the Apostle Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a Promise being left us of entering into His rest any of you should seem to come short of it None have more need to be afraid and awfully careful than a People that are in Covenant with God Every Sin of yours is aggravated with a peculiar Consideration every scandal is of a deep dy and gives great occasion for the Name of God to be evil spoken of You stand upon a dangerous Precipice if you fall your fall must needs be stupendous Be not then high minded but fear Fear lest Satan and your deceitful hearts beguile you fear lest you should in bold presumption rest upon vain and carnall confidence fear lest an evil heart of unbelief should lead you away from the living God You have a price in your hands make use of it the Kingdome of God is come unto you do not put it away The blessing of an everlasting Covenant and in it everlasting blessings are set before you Fulfil the Condition and they are yours If you cannot and you cannot do it of your selves let it drive you to Jesus Christ the Mediator that He may do it for you His Grace was never wanting to that Soul that truly sought it of Him Serve Him and He will save you Repent not of your engagements draw not back your hand having set it to the Plough Be faithful in a little and you shall be Heirs of great Glory God requires nothing of you but what is your reasonable service neither doth He require more than of His rich Grace He is free and ready to give you Power to perform You have to do with a God who is jealous for His great Name that will not be put off with pretences Christ who is the foundation of the Covenant Is not only a Corner-stone but also a stumbling-stone a Rock of offence They are not only the matters of this present life but of eternity that you have here to do in If you forsake God He will cast you off for ever But if you do in ●prightness devote your selves to Him in true Faith depend upon him with sincere Obedience improve our Time and Talents for Him He is Faithfull that hath Promised who will also perform it There shall not one good Word of His fall to the ground but whatsoever He hath spoken for your encouragement shall be fully accomplished for you He shall give you the end of your faith the salvation of your Souls And after you have serv●d Him in the Regeneration you shall sit upon Thrones and be ●ith Abraham with Isaack and with Jacob in the Kingdome where you shall find your little Faith your little Patience your little fidelity Shall be in Christ rewarded with endless Glory FINIS The Printer To the Reader Humanum est Errare is an old Cloak and grown somewhat Thred-bare Besides it is not for every Man 's Wearing and there may be a question whether I have a clear Title to it or no Wherefore I forbear to put it on and intreat the modest Reader either to look off my naked ERRATA or else charitably to Correct them Pag. 5. Line 25. for otherwayes Read otherwise p. 16. l. 25. r. Object p. 17. l. 23. dele not p. 20. l. 12. r. equally p. 23. l. 19. strike out laboured r. believed p. 25. l. 9. for os r. as p. 26. l. 3. for the r. that l. 8. for be r. by p. 27. l. 8. for 73. r. 78. l. 11. for referes r. referrs l. 16. r. failing p. 28. l. 15. for Job 3. 13. r. John 3. 18. p. 29. l. 15. dele as p. 40. l. 22. for there r. their p. 51. l. 11. for tenor r. terror p. 60. l. 22. for to r. of p. 67. l. 28. dele a p. 68. l. 26. r. in p. 86 l. 2. for John r. Joshuah p. 104. l. 14. for to r. and. p. 107. l. 10. r. industrious p. 110. l. 24. r. persist There are other Literal Faults and Mispointings which it will be easier for the Intelligent Reader to discern and amend than for me here to insert THE NECESSITY OF SINCERITY in renewing COVENANT Opened and urged in a SERMON Preached to the Third gathered Church in Boston New-England June 29. 1680. On the Day wherein they Solemnly renewed COVENANT By SAMVEL WILLARD Teacher of that Church Psal 119. 8. Let my Heart be sound in thy Statutes that I be not ashamed Lam. 3. 41. Let us lift up our Heart with our hands to God in the Heavens BOSTON IN NEW-ENGLAND Printed by James Glen for Samuel Sewall 1682. The Necessity of SINCERITY in Renewing COVENANT Psal 78. 37. begin For their Heart was not right with Him THe great Affair occasioning this Solemnity and business we have to attend this day in the presence of God is to revive and a new to ratifie the Covenant-engagement in which we stand obliged unto Him

in it the discovery of a way wherein fallen Man may be restored to the favour of God and the enjoyment of His everlasting Love which otherwise had been a thing hopeless Now this Covenant that we may at length come to the particular business here intended admits of a double consideration or is to be looked upon according to a different way of Administration viz. 1. It may be looked upon according the inward and spiritual application of it to the Elect as it is made use of to the bringing of them into the invisible Church and placing them among the number of God's effectually called Ones which is performed by the efficacious operation of the Spirit of God drawing of Souls home to Jesus Christ by the means of Grace making them powerfull to the end and so putting these into a state of Grace by Believing which is the prime designe of the Gospel And according to this dispensation of it it extends only to the Elect and is indeed nothing else but the application of the Covenant of Redemption to the proper Subject respected in it be the means of the Covenant of Reconciliation and in this sence the Word Church is often used in the New-Testament intending only the converted Elect. 2. Å¿ Å¿ Å¿ Ark of Covenant P. 394. It may be considered according to the visible and externall dispensation of it in the way of the Gospel as it is exhibited in the Ordinances and given out as an Edict from God unto those to whom the Gospel is sent and there carries in and with it the proposition of Life and Salvation and the threatning of Death and Damnation and these according to the tenor of termes and conditions which are therein made known and thus extends or bears a relation not only to such as are true Beleevers but others also viz. Vnto all those that are in the Visible Church with there seed professing Obedience to Gospel-Order and Ordinances To this Covenant or this manner of dispensation of it true Beleevers have truely and properly a relation so far as they are visible and stand under visible Ordinances Vnder this last Consideration we are to look upon the Covenant to be presented in our text viz. The Covenant of Reconciliation according to the visible and externall dispensation of it among such a People as are in visible Covenant with God and this differs from the same Covenant according to the internall dispensation of it in these thing 1. In the One the Covenant is firmly established and unalterably God is become the God portion of the Soul that hopes and believes in him and Beleevers are made His People really the soul is made to believe the Covenant is firmly settled and unmoveably whereas in the other it is only propounded with the command and threatning on God's Part and on the other hand as only outwardly professedly asserted submitted to by those concerned and that oftentimes deceitfully Psal 73. 35 36 37. not but that many in the visible Covenant have more than outwardly assented to it True Beleevers give not only their hands but their hearts also to God but that referes to the internall and not the visible dispensation of the Covenant 2. In the One the Covenant is ratified and confirmed by a surety and undertaker for the performance of it by all those that are related to it The Sonl having closed with Christ by Faith he becomes a never sailing surety for him that he shall do his Part of it and to him that all the Promises of it shall be fulfilled upon him In the other it is not so there is also Christ propounded as a surety and His readiness to undertake for us if we will by Faith close with and accept of Him to that end He tenders Himself to be a Corner-stone but withall threatens to be a stumbling-stone and Rock of offence if He be not believed in but despised In the one Christ is an undertaking Mediator in the other only a proffered Mediator In both we are assured that there is no treating with God but by a middle person the one tells a Beleever that Christ stands in his room responsible for him the other tells all that are the subjects of it they may have Him for such if they will Rom. 10. 9. 3. In the one the good and happy estate of the Soul is made sure and stands firmly built upon a foundation which is immoveable he that once truly believes in Christ is as secure of his blessedness as those that are now in full possession of it Rom. 11. 29. But in the other Man stands only upon conditions according to his performing or non-performing of which he must expect to stand or fall My meaning is the condition is in one performed or so engaged in that the Promise is ratified in the other it may yet stand unperformed and so the subject of it is yet upon a hazardous bottom and may be lost and perish for all his relation to it Rom. 3. 13. 4. In the one the Beleever is fully discharged from any challenge of the Covenant of Works the Law hath not any more claim to hold him under Rom. 6. 14. Ye are not under the Law i e. As a Covenant else Beleevers are under the Law as a Rule In the other a Man may be still held captive of the Law and ly open to condemnation only a deliverance is promised to him on conditions Job 3. 13. For it is certain none can deliver us from the Law but Christ and He delivers none but those that fly to Him and place their trust in Him if Men be not found in Christ more then by a visible claim the Law will seize upon them 5. In the one a Beleever is brought under the Promises and escaped from the danger of the threatnings Life is assured him and Death is removed from him it saith he shall not dye but live Rom. 8. 3. In Christ i. e. by a living Faith in the other a Person is lyable to both vers 13. Where the Apostle directs his speech to them under the notion and consideration of visible Beleevers and so they have a respect to threatnings as well as promises and the reason is because in the one the condition is looked upon as fulfilled being so in part and the whole undertaken for by Christ Hence he is escaped the forfeiture whereas in the other it is considered as a Covenant depending and to issue according to the carriage of the subject Now these are not essential differences such as should make it two Covenants but all only such as arise from the Modall dispensation of it The reason of which different dispensation is because God will gather up His Elect out of the rubbish of the World in such a way as shall tend to leave others also inexcusable if they will not come in Indeed the main reason of this visible dispensation is for the Elects sake that they may be gathered in a way

attaining of this Grace they will be witnesses against them in the Day of account and help greatly to enflame their Reckoning Mat. 11. 23. 2. Christ stands Surety for Beleevers not to encourage their neglect but only to help their Faith relying upon Him in sense of self-insufficiencie and that too either whiles they are striving to do good and cannot do the good which they would or at least are mourning for and repenting of their falls and neglects Christ never intended that His Grace should be the Abettour and Protector of Men's Wickedness And so to improve it is to turn it into wantonness which every serious Soul must abominate Rom. 6. 1 2. And hence also though Christ will be an effectual Advocate for every True Beleever Notwithstanding all his frailties and breaches of Covenant with God yet He will be no Abettour of him for his wilfull and bold transgressions committed upon presumption of Christ's intercession but he will charge his sin home upon him as he did upon David and make it an evil and bitter thing to him He will break his bones wound his spirit make him see the evil and feel the smart of it so as to loath himself for it In a Word he will not apply his pardon sensibly to the Soul but in a way of deep humiliation godly Sorrow and Repentance 3. Degeneracy Apostasie and Covenant breaking is an evil into which God's visible Covenant-People are very apt to decline It is as it were the hereditary disease of the visible Church It is a Malady Epidemical they very often fall into it It hath been so from the beginning besides the particular discovery of false Professors in the best Times and Ages and Churches it is also observable that there can scarcely any Authority be produced that ever the Church preserved a general integrity in Faith and Manners above an Age at once at the most Yea we find that Israel in the Wilderness though under many peculiar advantages to keep close with God who was so near them so ready to help them so wonderfully discovered Himself to them did yet fall into universal Idolatry before Joshua and the Elders which out-lived him were cold in their graves that people that had just before Joshua's death solemnly renewed Covenant went after strange Gods Reiigion scarcely well setled in David's time yet waines before Solomon's death and soon after ten tribes go away to direct idolatry and the two that remained but little better Josiah's reformation was buried with him in one Grave Since Christ came in the flesh the Apostles had scarce setled the Christian Churches but they lived some of them to see the mystery of iniquity begin to worke John who was the longest lived of the Apostles saw five of the seven Churches of Asia manifestly degenerating Now the consideration of these things should put an aw upon our spirits and make us the more watchfull remembring that we have no more security for our standing than they had It is the concluding argument which the Apostle drawes from such premises 1 Cor. 10. 12. Let him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall They stood upon the same ground that we do neither have we any greater security of our standing then they had of theirs 4. Consider how great the severity of God hath been against Covenant-breakers Joshua dissembled not with them but gave them a true caution John 24. 19 20. He will not forgive c. If you forsake c. God sends the Jews to Shilo to read there in those heaps and monuments of His anger a Lesson of their own admonition Jer. 7. 11. The Histories of God's revenge upon His own People for affronts offered to His Covenant are as well recorded for our instruction as those of His Mercies God would have all of us to know that He is Holy as well as Gracious and that He expects to be glorified by all those that draw near unto Him If Aaron's Sons offer strange fire they themselves shall be destroyed with fire from Heaven Awfull is that Scripture Jer. 12. 7. I have for saken my House I have left mine heritage I have given the dearly Beloved of my Soul into the hand of her Enemyes Jerusalem came down wonderfully because she had forsaken her God Apostate Churches are the most unsafe and insecure of any People of the World and let us remember that the time is drawing on when Judgement must begin at the House of God and if so we have great need if we would then escape to see to our own hearts and lives that they be agreeable to what the Covenant expects of us 5. Consider there is Grace Peace and safety to be had in our keeping Covenant with God it is David's profession 119. 165. Great Peace have all they that keep thy Law There is no danger on God's part that He should fail of His Promise it is part of His Name and one of His precious Titles that He is a God keeping Covenant His Truth and Faithfulness engage Him in it we have to do with a God that cannot lie He never said to the house of Israel Seek my Face in vain As Covenant-Mercyes are everlasting so they are sure they are inviolably engaged to them that fear him and keep His Covenant called Sure Mercyes of David Isa 55. 3. As long as Vzziah walked with God He caused him to prosper As far as God sees fit for His own Glory Vpright Churches shall have outward Peace and prosperity Or if for His Glory he suffers persecution to come upon them to try their graces they shall need to fear none of these things Rev. 2. 10. And it will be a blessed and soul-satisfying conclusion to be able to profesS in times of greatest oppression as they did Psal 44. 17. c. If a Church as such Apostatize yet faithfull Ones and mourners in it shall be Marked out for Mercy Ezek. 9. begin Those who then defile not their Garments Shall walk with Him in White Rev. 3. 4. If God comes forth in His Indignation and punisheth the Inhabitants of the Earth yet still He will provide for them call for them into their Chambers and shut the Door upon them for their security And then shall the Faithful know that it was not in vain for them that they served God and were not false to His Covenant but stood firm against all shocks of Temptation though in the mean time for a while they may be scorned and scoffed at by the World for their integrity In the further Prosecution of this Vse I shall first propound some general helps and then present more particular Directions For help would we keep Covenant with God Then 1. You must go to and believe in Jesus Christ for Grace whereby you may be enabled so to do I name this first Because it is the foundation of all Christ is the Surety and Vndertaker in the Covenant on both Parties and if you would do any thing in this business you

under a pretence of holiness reverence helps to devotion or whatsoever other fair shews Men may endeavour to cover it withall God's command is strict that we neither add to nor take from His Church Institutions Christ is the only Lord and Law-giver And to bind the Conscience to the Religious observation of any thing in worship which is not appointed by Him is plain Superstition The efficacy of all Church-Ordinances for the good of the Souls of God's People depends upon the blessing of Christ which blessing He hath no where engaged to Will-worship or that fear of God which therefore is in vain taught by the precepts of Men and to think that Christ hath not taken sufficient care in His Gospel and made plentiful Provision there for the securing of His interest and Glory in His Church the wel-fare also and salvation of the Souls of His People is to charge unfaithfulness or at the least rash heedlesness and imprudence upon Him who is declared to be faithful in His House as Moses was in his yea with this addition that Moses did as a Servant He as a Son Let us then take heed that we be not drawn away nor turned aside What temptations may be set before us on these accounts God only knowes and when they come there are many things which may seem but little and we may be accounted nice and peevish for standing on such punctilio's yet even the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and tittles of the Will of Christ are carefully to be maintained and defended It was thought by some no great matter in Primitive times to throw a little Frankincense upon the fire on the Heathen Altars without a word speaking and a liberty of privat interpretation of their intentions to them that did it and they were judged too prodigal of their Lives that would not for so trifling a thing redeem them yet the Martyrs chose all manner of cruel Tortures rather than yeeld to do it I plead not for Nicetyes nor pretended scrupulosityes in things meerly occasional and civil which are appendices to Religion and come not under any particular Rule but for what concerns the Ordinances themselves Let us not then seek after superficial Embellishments but take delight in the simplicity and plainness of Gospel-Dispensations 2. Carefully avoid and withstand the Sins of the Time s As there are no times or ages of the Church free from their Temptations so as times change Temptations alter There are divers Sins which like divers Garbes take their turnes to be in fashion And it is a principal tryal of a Christian's faithfulness in the Covenant when he refuseth to go with a multitude to do evil This was Noah's commendation and a singular advantage it brought with it Gen. 7. 1. But there are some times wherein Sin greatly abounds and the love of many waxeth cold when Apostacy is more general among Professours when the Stars fall these are perillous times this is an hour of Temptation and now he that is faithful to death shall have a Crown of Life That this is such an hour with most of the reformed Churches now in the World is too manifest to be called in question And it is one part of our Covenant with God to be watchful careful against the evils of the times there are many Sins which these places we live in do labour of and God is greatly provoked by them and His Name dishonoured Some of the most notorious and dangerous of these I shall enter particular caution against viz. 1. A spirit of Contention It is very lamentable to see how the People of God are exceeding apt to fall out in their way to Heaven how much the peace of these and those Churches is shaken what light matters foment and what an eager spirit there is to maintain divisions a sad symptome of ruine if God in mercy prevent it not Heart-divisions certainly render a People guilty before God Hos 10. 2. And do greatly hinder the progress of the truth yea take away the beauty and strength of the Church and bring all to confusion Jam. 3. 16. Faith and Order Peace and Truth is the glory of any Church And it is a great mercy for any society that theirs is spoken of in the Churches and blessed be God for this Congregation on that behalf the Lord maintain and encrease it Satan is alwayes watching his opportunity and if he finds advantage will not neglect it and must therefore be stedfastly resisted 2. A spirit of giddiness and Errour Great is the unsetledness of many mens principles and wavering of their profession Vnsteady minds Men have which are ever learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth Men have gotten itching ears ever hearkening after some new Doctrines and new Teachers The good old wayes of Truth which are the only wayes leading Men to Salvation are too much trodden for them they are too common for such singular spirits whereas God hath bid us to seek for the old wayes and it will be found only safe for a People to hold fast their profession which they have received down from Jesus Christ and certainly when Men go from this they go from the Covenant 3. A spirit of boundless Toleration I am not now speaking of the Magistrates power and duty but of that which concerns the Churches of Christ Who can but acknowledge that times are then bad and sad when a due and sober witness-bearing against the prevailing evils of the times and places is stigmatized for Persecution when men that pretend themselves to be for the Truth yet cannot patiently bear a plain and honest discovery of errours is not this indeed to persecute the saithful Servants of Jesus Christ Though many disputes have been in the Christian World about that question viz. How far the Civil Sword ought to be drawn against those who are the Publishers and Maintainers of Erronious and Heretical Doctrines and Practices Yet the Church of Christ ever accounted Her self engaged to condemn and suppress them both by Preaching and Writing against the Doctrines and sharpening the Church censures against the Persons of such as vented pertinaciously persisted in them purging out such Leaven from the lump Nor did the Professours of the Truth ever call this Persecution till now of late It was the commendation of the Church of Ephesus that they could not bear with such as those who said they were Apostles and were not Rev. 2. 2. And it is great pitty that it should now be esteemed the Glory of any Churches that they can bear with them yea cherish and defend them The Covenant I am sure obligeth to the contrary And this evil is the rather to be carefully resisted because it is manifestly the present Engine which Antichrist is making use of to undermine and bring to nothing the Protestant Churches withal 4. A Korah-like spirit despising and envying Magistracy and Ministery and doing what in them lyes to render them low and contemptible Men count